“In a way, the Aztec model makes more sense because sacrificing your enemy means you'll never see him again, whereas selling your enemy back to his family means he's up for round two and you might face off against the same guy across a future battlefield.”

…the Chichimek were a wilder tribe to the north and fought more fiercely than the Totonaks did. To a degree, there's a certain overlap with European cultures. There was great advantage throughout the feudal era in taking your enemies alive as opposed to killing them, because then you could ransom them back to their families and you can come out of that ahead in terms of at least financial gain. In a way, the Aztec model makes more sense because sacrificing your enemy means you'll never see him again, whereas selling your enemy back to his family means he's up for round two and you might face off against the same guy across a future battlefield. Even kings, the kings of France after the battles of Poitiers and Pavia were captured and then subject to various indignities. So to a degree, there was a certain level of overlap. But more holistically, you're right. Yes, the Aztecs did fight ideally to capture, not to kill. And there were multiple episodes when they did have Cortez himself under their knives, but were so desperate to haul him…